


The Meeting of Dragoon and Arthur

by Nebula5030



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arthur Knows, But no one knows he was Dragoon yet, Gwaine Knows, Humourous, Merlin is Court Sorcerer, Morgana is defeated but everyone is still alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 08:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13737474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebula5030/pseuds/Nebula5030
Summary: A purely humorous take on how Arthur learns that Merlin is Dragoon.





	The Meeting of Dragoon and Arthur

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by my brother and sister, neither of whom have an Ao3 account.
> 
> EDIT: As of yesterday (March 5, 2018), my sister now has an account @Fastesthe1

If you had told Arthur Pendragon two years ago that Camelot would have a magic school in its midst within the year, there was certainly no way that he would have believed you. If you had continued, and said that this school would be taught and run by his personal servant, Merlin, he would have called you insane and possibly have had you thrown in the stocks.

But, nevertheless, that was what came to pass.

After the defeat of Morgana, Merlin revealed his magic to Arthur. The king was shocked, to say the least, but given time and enough explanation, Arthur came to see that perhaps magic wasn’t the evil his father had led him to believe, and that there was some good to it after all.

As such, he had promoted Merlin to Court Sorcerer, and magic was no longer a capital offense in Camelot.

After some time, Merlin had approached Arthur with an idea: a school to help teach those with magical potential to control their gifts. A place where they wouldn’t have to feel alone as their new abilities grew.

It took some persuading, but Arthur eventually came round to the idea.

The school was small, only five students, but Merlin was proud of his pupils nonetheless. Over the last year, he had seen them grow and watched their magic flourish. He loved teaching, and enjoyed nearly every minute he had spent in front of his class.

And he had something special in mind for tomorrow’s lesson.

“So, what you’re telling me, is,” Gwaine said as he stood next to Merlin as the warlock worked on brewing a potion. “You’re going to go to this class in your old man disguise, give them a lesson on how to brew a potion to undo spells, and then drink it to reveal that it’s actually you?”

Merlin looked over, an excited and mischievous grin on his face. “Yep!”

Gwaine laughed and shook his head. “And… what do you need me for?”

“My class is expecting _me_ -” Merlin gestured to himself- “To be there. Obviously I can’t do that if I’m disguised. What I need you to do is come in and say something about how there was an emergency in the lower town or something. And that I should be at the class as soon as it’s dealt with.”

Gwaine nodded as he mulled over this idea. “I’m covering for you.”

“Exactly.”

Gwaine watched as Merlin compared the mixture to a color wheel in a book. “Is that the potion?” the knight asked.

“I’m making a back-up,” Merlin explained, “In case I can’t actually make it in class for some reason.” Merlin grimaced as he realized the potion was slightly too dark. Immediately he started another attempt. “Gaius told me that when he first tried to make it, it took him about a dozen tries. He was up all night trying to get it right. After that, we always kept a backup bottled somewhere.”

Gwaine looked over, brow furled. “Why didn’t he just wait until the next day?”

“Well, it was either stay up all night and get it right, or watch me get burnt at the stake the next day,” Merlin responded, almost too nonchalantly for what he had said.

Gwaine’s eyebrows went up and he mouthed a quick, “Oh.”

 

The next day found Merlin standing in front of his mirror, some of Gaius’s old robes draped over him. Gwaine was next to him, patiently waiting for Merlin to transform himself so he would know what Merlin would look like when he finally arrived.

Merlin let out a breath. “Okay, let’s do this.” He clasped his hands together in front of him and shut his eyes. He said the incantation aloud, and soon found himself experiencing the sensation of getting older. His hair grew heavier, and he felt himself physically grow weaker. Merlin let out a slight groan and opened his eyes, his aged form greeting him in the mirror.

Merlin smirked. “I always hate this,” he said, voice raspy with age.

Merlin, or rather, _Dragoon_ , turned to Gwaine with a mischievous smile. “Well, what do you think?”

Gwaine blinked. He pointed a finger at Dragoon and exclaimed, “You’re _Dragoon?”_

“Did I forget to mention that?”

Gwaine still looked shocked for a moment, but then he leaned his head back and barked out a laugh. “No wonder he’s so blunt to Arthur! I always wondered where he got his spunk! But, in all seriousness, had I not just seen that, I would have never known it was you.”

Dragoon smiled. “Good.” He turned back to the mirror. “It would ruin the point if people did.” Dragoon ran his hand through his beard, still not used to it. “How can you stand to have hair on your face all the time? It gets so annoying.”

Gwaine chuckled. “Mine grew naturally. And I don’t have nearly as much as you.”

Dragoon tipped his head in acknowledgment. “Alright. You have a point.” He waved Gwaine off. “Now go! My class starts in a few minutes, and they’re all going to be wondering why I’m not there! Shoo!”

Gwaine raised his hands in surrender and went to the door. He said with a slight chuckle, “You know, Merlin, I think being older makes you get more mean.”

“Out!”

“Case and point,” Gwaine said as he shut the door.

Dragoon chuckled slightly as he grabbed the bag that he had prepared and slung it over his shoulder, vials and ingredients tinkling together as he did.

Dragoon waited for a couple minutes, and then stood up. He let out a grunt, not used to his joints deciding that they suddenly hated him, and headed to the door.

He poked his head out, and looked both ways down the hallway, before heading out for his class. No one seemed to notice him, and Dragoon thought he would make it to his class without an incident.

That is, until Dragoon rounded a corner and froze. There, at the other end of the hallway, was Arthur. Arthur hadn’t seen him yet, and Merlin certainly hadn’t told him that _he_ was actually Dragoon. Dragoon inhaled slowly and turned carefully on the ball of his foot, hoping Arthur didn’t see him. He took a step back the direction he came from.

“ _You!”_ he heard Arthur exclaim angrily. Dragoon stopped and grimaced with a flinch. From the other end of the hallway he heard the sound of Arthur angrily marching his way down towards Dragoon.

Dragoon inhaled sharply, and turned to Arthur. Here goes nothing. “ _Me,”_ he said contemptuously as he looked over Arthur with a slight glare.

Arthur looked at Dragoon with his brow furled and his mouth in an angry frown. “Dragoon. Why are you here?”

Dragoon inhaled and stood straight, looking over Arthur with the same indignant expression. “Merlin invited me to come teach a class, I’ll have you know.”

“Merlin?”

“That’s right.”

“Why would Merlin need you to teach his class anything?”

“I have some skills that Merlin does not,” Dragoon responded as if it were obvious. “He asked me to come give a lecture on potion brewing.”

Arthur then looked around Dragoon. “Where is Merlin, anyhow? Shouldn’t he be with you?”

“There… was an emergency in the lower town,” Dragoon said quickly. “He needed to go take care of it.”

Arthur’s brow furled. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”

 _Shoot._ Dragoon mentally kicked himself, realizing he should have known better than to say that. “I do not know, but if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to teach.” Dragoon turned away, hoping that would be the end of it, but he grimaced as he felt Arthur’s hand on his shoulder.

He turned back to Arthur, who was eyeing him with distrust. Arthur spoke slowly, “Merlin may trust you, God knows why, but I do not. I will accompany you until Merlin returns.”

Dragoon frowned and narrowed his eyes at Arthur. “Don’t you have kingy duties to attend to?”

“They can wait,” Arthur said as he stepped past Dragoon. “Now let’s go.”

 

Dragoon entered the class and looked around at all the students. Each of the students immediately sat up, fully attentive, and Dragoon had to suppress a pleased nod. However, they all stood a moment later, and Dragoon realized that Arthur must have entered.

Dragoon looked at Gwaine, who was standing in the back and looking past Dragoon with a confused look. “Sire?” Gwaine started.

“I found Dragoon here wandering through the halls,” Arthur said. “I’m just here to make sure he doesn’t cause any trouble. What are you doing here, Gwaine?”

Gwaine let out a breath between his lips. “Merlin asked me to make sure his class didn’t show Dragoon any disrespect while he was away.” Gwaine glanced at Dragoon with a raised eyebrow, but Dragoon could only shrug slightly in return.

Dragoon turned to Arthur. “Go sit at a seat then. I don’t want you forcing the class to stand all day.”

Arthur narrowed his eyes. “I think we need to do something about your tone, Dragoon.”

“Or what? You’ll have me burnt at the stake? Is that it?” Dragoon retorted.

Arthur’s eyes became so narrowed Dragoon didn’t know how Arthur could still see through them. “No. You already escaped that once. But I may need to have a word with Merlin about letting you in here again.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Dragoon saw Gwaine cover his mouth as he tried not to laugh.

Arthur went and sat next to Gwaine and Dragoon walked over to the desk. He narrowed his eyes at the students. “I assume Merlin told you who I am, yes?”

“Dragoon the Great,” a couple of them muttered.

Dragoon nodded. “Very good. Now, let’s see what he wanted me to do.” He grabbed a letter from his bag and looked it over, muttering incoherently as he read what it said. In reality, it was just Merlin’s list of herbs he needed, but for now he was pretending it was a letter to Dragoon. “What? He wants me to do _that?”_ Dragoon unceremoniously threw the paper over his shoulder. “Well, he’s not here, so he can’t stop me from teaching what I want.” He looked around at the class. “Now, what is one of the most important things you need to have when doing a spell? Especially if you’re doing it to yourself?”

When no one responded, Dragoon snorted. He muttered in disapproval, “Apparently the Great and Powerful Emrys doesn’t know the first thing about teaching magic. Your teacher is incompetent.”A couple students snickered. Dragoon continued, “One of the first things that you should learn when doing magic is to have a way to undo your spell. In case something goes wrong. There’s a potion that is designed to negate spells. And today I’ll show you how to make it.”

Arthur cleared his throat from the back. Dragoon looked over the class at him. “Yes?”

“Shouldn’t you be teaching what Merlin asked you to teach?” Arthur said, eyes narrowed at Dragoon. “You are his guest, after all.”

Dragoon smiled. “And who is the one who left his guest all alone? If Merlin wanted me to teach what he wanted, he should have known better than to leave me alone.”

Arthur continued, “I just think-”

“And who’s the one with magic here?” Dragoon interrupted. “If you think you can teach what Merlin wanted to be taught, come up here and be my guest.”

Arthur’s eyes narrowed further, silently stewing. “Don’t make me have you thrown out, Dragoon.”

“I don’t think Merlin would appreciate you doing that, Arthur,” Dragoon responded. “And you don’t want to anger the Most Powerful Sorcerer to ever walk the planet, now, do you? Now then,” he said, swiftly changing the topic and pulling out his tome and slapping it on the desk, all without giving Arthur a chance to respond.

Dragoon began to make the potion, explaining in excruciating detail what he was doing. Emphasizing that this potion was very difficult to get right, and even acclaimed sorcerers rarely got it right the first time.

His students were all taking notes, and even Gwaine seemed to be enthralled in the lesson, sitting up and watching from the back. Arthur was watching silently with a slight glare. Dragoon had to resist smiling up at him.

Dragoon finished the potion, and muttered the final incantation. His eyes flashed gold, and the potion began to change color. The students all let out impressed noises. Even Arthur looked impressed, although he obviously tried to hide it when he saw Dragoon smirking at him.

Dragoon took a vial from his bag and bottled the potion. “Now, to make sure it’s right, you check the color against a color wheel. Like so.” He held it next to his book. He blinked. “Would you look at that, I got it right!”

The class laughed.

Dragoon looked up at the class, “Now, what exactly can this potion be used for?

“Sometimes you put a spell on yourself to enhance your abilities: night vision, super hearing-” he looked up at Arthur and continued nonchalantly- “Being a super-ass.”

Arthur narrowed his eyes further as the class, Gwaine included, snickered.

“Other times you may use magic to change your appearance: an aging spell, for example-” Dragoon smirked behind his beard- “Most established spells come with ways to undo them, but sometimes that doesn’t work and you need to come up with a back-up. That’s where this potion comes in. To use it, you just make it, and then you drink it. Like so.” He downed it.

The class stood up, knowing better than to take a potion without a reason. _“Dragoon!”_

Dragoon eyed the now-empty vial and set it down on the table. He coughed. “See, then you just wait for a bit…” Dragoon turned around and pulled his hood up. He began to feel himself revert to normal.

A moment later, Merlin turned around and pulled the hood down, revealing himself once more with a smile. “And then your spell is gone! Any questions?”

No one moved. Merlin continued to smile

 _“Merlin?”_ he heard Arthur exclaim from the back.

Merlin looked back. “Yes, Arthur?” he responded, as if Arthur was just a student with a question.

Gwaine had one hand clasped over his mouth and was shaking with suppressed laughter. Arthur looked like he was in disbelief. But then he laughed. “Okay, Merlin, very funny, where’d Dragoon go?”

“He’s right here, Arthur,” Merlin said with a smile. “He never left.”

Arthur froze. “I- what-”

Gwaine couldn’t hold it in any longer: he burst out laughing, falling out of his chair and to the floor as he did so. Merlin continued to smile.

Arthur looked at Gwaine indignantly. “Gwaine, _what_ is so funny?”

“Y-you two!” he said through the laughter. “Watching Merlin insult you s-so much was the best thing that I’ve ever seen!” Gwaine had his hands covering his face as he laughed. And even the class started to join in at seeing one of the knights just completely _lose it._

Arthur still looked shocked. “Did you _know?”_

Gwaine took in a couple deep breaths to calm himself. “Believe me, princess, I was shocked too,” Gwaine said as he sat up, wiping his eyes. “But Merlin needed someone to cover for the fact that he wasn’t going to be here while Dragoon was.”

Arthur looked back and forth between Merlin and Gwaine several times, trying to say something, but no complete words came out of his mouth.

After a moment of quiet, one of the students said arrogantly, “I knew it was him the whole time.”

To which another responded incredulously, “No you didn’t!”

Merlin laughed and shook his head. “If you did know it was me, that means you’re more perceptive than King Arthur here or Morgana Le Fay was.”

The class immediately hushed at the mention of Morgana; Merlin rarely mentioned her, and never without a sadness in his eyes. But Merlin didn’t skip a beat, and he pulled out extra ingredients from his bag. “I’ve brought enough here for you all to try brewing the potion yourself. Grab a cauldron from the shelf and get started, but _do not drink it until I confirm it’s good_ , understand?”

The class gave their affirmations, and immediately started filing to get the supplies. Once they were all set and brewing the potions, Merlin walked up to Arthur and Gwaine- the knight still sitting on the floor with a grin and the king still looking shocked, but now it was overlaid with contemplation.

Gwaine grinned up at Merlin as he stood. “I must say, Merlin, even you can make teaching interesting.”

Merlin rolled his eyes with an exasperated smile. “Thanks. I think.”

Gwaine glanced between Arthur and Merlin, before letting out a breath. “Well, if you don’t need me anymore, I’d best be going. Sire, Merlin.” He clapped and hand on Merlin’s shoulder, before leaving the room.

Merlin looked over Arthur, before sitting down next to him. “You okay?” Merlin asked gently.

“… were you always Dragoon?” Arthur responded evenly.

Merlin paused, but then nodded slowly. “Every time.”

“You put a sachet under my pillow.”

Merlin shook his head. “Morgana put that there to frame Gwen for sorcery. Gaius and I knew that the only way to exonerate her was to put the blame on someone else. In that case, me.”

Arthur nodded and didn’t respond, but Merlin could see a lingering question in Arthur’s eyes. Merlin let out a breath. He knew exactly what Arthur was thinking about. “I did everything I could to save your father, Arthur.” Arthur jerked at Merlin, expression showing that he didn’t expect for Merlin to pick up what he was thinking. Merlin turned away and shook his head slowly with a frown. “But… Morgana got to him before I did. She had Aggravaine put a talisman on him that reversed any magic I tried.” Merlin looked up at Arthur, with a faint, remorseful smile. He let out a breath and said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t have helped more. Truly I am.”

Arthur looked over Merlin, expression still shocked, but then it fell into a much softer one. He put his hand on Merlin’s arm. “I… I know that you would have done your best, and I cannot ask you for more. Thank you, Merlin.”

They both smiled briefly at the other, before one of the students came up. “Umm, Master Merlin?”

Merlin glanced up. “Yes?”

“Bodhmall’s cauldron is boiling over and the smoke is purple. I don’t think it’s supposed to do that-?”

Merlin glanced over and, sure enough, one of the cauldrons was spilling a deep indigo liquid all over the table and purple smoke was billowing out of it. “No it’s not,” Merlin confirmed, blinking at it. He stood up- “Excuse me, Arthur-” before rushing over to the table and immediately trying to rectify whatever it was that the student had done.

Arthur watched for a moment as Merlin scrambled to salvage the table- which the potion was rapidly eating through- but then he got up and walked silently out of the room.

As Arthur walked through the castle, he gathered his thoughts. He’d only encountered Dragoon a handful of times, but every time was… interesting. He never could make heads or tails of the old man’s intentions, and this revelation didn’t seem any closer to changing that.

But as he thought, he realized that, no matter what the seemingly mad old man did, Dragoon had always seemed to be doing something to help, even if it didn’t seem like it at the time. Arthur smiled fondly and shook his head. He still had a lot to learn about what Merlin had done for him, it would seem.

Arthur decided he’d need to thank Merlin later.

But not until after he got some payback for all those comments.

**Author's Note:**

> Bodhmall is named for the Druid woman from Irish Mythology who raised Fionn Mac Cumhaill.  
> Fun Fact: Fionn Mac Cumhaill is like Arthur in that he's prophesied to return during the hour of Ireland's greatest need. There's a cool video to learn about him here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVHyXcAJ-Ks& (Also those people have another video about King Arthur and it's great. I /highly/ recommend their stuff).
> 
> Thank for you for reading! ^u^

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] The Meeting of Dragoon and Arthur](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16620884) by [MistbornHero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistbornHero/pseuds/MistbornHero)




End file.
